Do you wake up every morning wondering where your next lead will come from?
Well, I have to tell you that for many years, I wondered why the real estate agents I was marketing to weren't sending me clients every single day, including Saturdays and Sundays. After all, I was buying them lunch. I was attending meetings. I was holding new Realtor training sessions. I was including them in my home-buying seminars.
That’s when I realized that I was letting someone else, namely real estate agents, control my business and my income. The latest 2013 NAR "Profile of a Realtor" study reports the following:
They have a median gross income of $43,500. A real estate broker's gross income is $54,900, while a sales agent's gross income is $34,000. After 16 years as a Realtor, the gross income is $57,300. Oh, and that's before expenses!
Depending upon where you are in the country, that could be anywhere from one to six deals a year. So let’s say that their net income is about $20,000. I decided that I was not going to rely upon a $20,000-a-year real estate agent to determine my income.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are some great agents out there who do a ton of business. And I did have a great referral relationship with a couple of them. But what I found was that I was spending way too much time trying to generate business from an agent who would only give me one or two deals a year (and that was a big maybe). I needed to spend more time generating my own leads from past clients and consumer-direct marketing systems.
So, do you know where your business is coming from every day? You need to develop a business plan so you never have to wonder how you are going to support your family and yourself—and not rely on a $20,000 a year person for food, clothing and shelter.
Karen Deis' business coach Victoria DelFrate has written a new e-book called "Winging It Won’t Work," which includes downloads for her business planning workbook. More information can be found at
